Feeding mechanism



May 8, 1923. 1,454,507

J. CONTE FEEDING MECHANISM Filed Feb. 21, 1921 @heets-Sheei 1 May 8,1923.

J. CONTE FEEDING MECHANISM- 4 Sheeis-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 21 1921 W fl w mM Q Fl @Qmmm. \Q h WM .Q [I 7 6 Q m w M May 8, 1923.

J. CONTE FEEDING MEGHANI SM Filed Feb, 214. 4 Sheets-Shet s May 8, 1923.1,4541-507 J.CONTE FEEDING MECHANISM Filed Feb. 21, 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet4 j Tar/ 67W".

Patented May 8, 1923.

UNITED. STATS JAMES comma, or nnsrnernns, ILLINOIS.

' FEEDING MECHANISM.

Application filed February 21, 1921. Serial No. 446,663

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES CONTE, a citizen'of the United States,residing at Desplaines, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois,have invented a new and useful Improvement in Feeding Mechanism, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to mechanism of the class shown in my priorPatent No. 1,377,399 dated May 10, 1921, and has for its principalobject the organization of the various instrumentalities for initiallydischarging the articles, their proper disposition and delivery to thegrading elements, their receipt from the grading elements, and theirdelivery to the row-forming mechanism so that-the machine as a wholewill operate more nearly automatically and will cause much less wastethrough breakage incident to a congestion of the articles in therow-forming mechanism than has heretofore been possible.

More particularly this invention relates to the handling of nut meatsthat arereceived from a sorter and grader so that they may be deliveredto a coating machine at the desired speed and in substantially uniformand regular order or alinement. In my prior application for LettersPatent of the United States for an improved sorting and gradingapparatus, which was filed June 9, 1920, Serial No. 387,550 and issuedas Patent No. 1,377,399, I have disclosed an apparatus wherein thearticles to be graded and sorted are received from a hopper upon aslowly moving conveyor or apron and from which the articles aredischarged upon a plurality of shaker bars (or a Grisley screen), sothat only-the desired articles remainupon the bars to be laterdischarged from their outer ends. At this point, my present apparatus isadapted to receive the articles discharged from the shaker-bars anddistribute them uniformly over a timing conveyor or apron from whichthey are received upon a second or feed conveyor where the articles arearranged by spaced guide strips to aline them in rows for their deliveryto a machine for coating the articles. With my improved mechanism thearticles, which may be nuts or the like, are delivered to the coatingmachine in longitudinal rows through: the action of the strips beforementioned, and the two conveyors or aprons regulate the speed of travelof the nut meats so that the feed and delivery of the nut meats will beproperly controlled so as to. deliver, just the proper quantity to thecoater withoutliability of the nut meats coating machine. Among thedivers objects of thetpresent mvention are the provision of a feedingmechanism that is capable of controlling the speed at which the articlesare fed from the machine; that will handle the articles so that it willnot cause injury to them; that will alin the articles in uniformrowsprior to delivery; that is comparatively economical to manufacture,and which is novel, compact and durable in construction and dependablein its operation. I prefer to accomplish the divers objects of myinvention in substanpiling up at the tially the manner hereinafter setforth, andas more particularly pointed out in the claims, referencebeing hadto the accompanying drawings forming aportion of thisspecification, in Which Figure-1 is a top plan of the sorting andgradingportion of my improved apparatus.

Figure 2 is a similar view of the regulat ing, alining and feedingportion of said apparatus, and continuing from the left-hand end ofFigure 1.

Figure 3is a longitudinal side elevation of the structure illustrated inFigure 2.;

Figure 4 is an enlarged detail. in side ele vation of the regulatingiortimingapron and table.

Figure 5 is a transverse vertical section taken on line 5-5, Figure 3,lookingin the direction indicated by the arrows.

F'gure 6 is a fragmentaltop plan, en 'larged, of the delivery portion ofthe structure shown in F igure2. I

v Figure 7 is a transverse vertical section taken on line 77, Figure 2,and slightly enlarged. I I Figure 8 is a longitudinal vertical sectiontaken on line 88, Figure 6f Figure 9 is a diagrammatic side elevationof'th driving mechanism shown at the top of Figure 1 Figure 10 is afragmentary plan: of the. structure shown in the central portion of'tical section of the brush structure-ordrag employed in connection withthe regulating or timing apron. v

The structure illustrated in plan in Figure 1 of the drawings issubstantially the same as that disclosed in my co-pending applicationfor Letters Patent of the United States filed June 9,1920, Serial Number387,- 550, and issued as Patent No. 1,377,399, for improvements in agrading and sorting machine with the exception that the second or lowerset of grading bars is omitted for the obvious reason that after thefirst or top grader has sorted the nut meats so as to retain only thefull-size meats, the culls, halves, hulls, etc., that fall through thisfirst grader need no further grading as they are of no use in thepresent type of machine.

The grading structure shown herein comprises a suitable frame 20consisting of standards and rails in which the mechanism is mounted andsupported, and at the righthand end of Figure l is shown a hopper 21into which the batch of nut-meats is deposited and which is provided inits bottom with an elongated discharge opening 22, while below thisopening travels a slowly moving conveyor belt or apron 23. A brush 24 ismounted in the opening to act as a drag upon-the nut meats therebyacting as a distributor and gauge to regulate the quantity of meatsdeposited upon the apron 23. The apron is mounted upon a flat table 25which, at its end farthest from the hopper, is provided with across-piece 26 that is adjustable longitudinally of the apron to tightenor slacken the same through the medium of set-screws 27 and L-shaped arm28 that are secured to the ends of the crosspiece. The opposite portionof the apron .which is below hopper 21, passes over a driving drum 29,the spindle whereof is journaled in bearings in the side of thesupporting frame 20, and is adjusted longitudinally of the machinethrough the medium of set-screws 30. A worm pinion 31 is mounted uponone end of the drum spindle that is driven by a worm upon a horizontallydisposed shaft 32 having a miter gear 33 adjacent its opposite end thatderives its motion froma miter gear 34 on a transverse shaft 35extending across the frame; The shaft 35 is actuated through the mediumof a chain and sprocket mechanism 36 that is actuated from the maindrive-shaft 37 mounted transversely of the frame and below the end ofthe table opposite the hopper.

From apron 23 the nut meats are discharged slowly upon a verticalvibratory screen or grader 38 formed of a plurality of longitudinallydisposed grading bars mounted in spaced relation upon transverse pieces39. This grader screen has flared side walls 40 to prevent theshakingofi' ofthe nut meats and is given a rapid vibratory movement through theinstrumentalities of chute 41 has vertical side walls 42, and its upperedge is disposed in a plane slightly below the plane of the lower endof'the Grisle-y screen, so that none of the'perfect or sorted nut meatswill belost. The chute 41'discharges the nut meats upon an apron 43 thatslowly moves towards the coating machine. This apron is mounted upon atable 44, similar in construction to table 25 heretofore alluded to, andat its forward end is provided with an adjustable tensioning bar 45 thatslackens or tightens the belt or apron through the instrumentality ofthe L-shaped brackets 46 that are engaged by the adjusting bolts 47. Theopposite portion of the apron passes around a driving. drum 48 thespindle whereof is mounted in journal boxes or bearings in T-shapedbrackets 49 arising from opposite sides of.

frame 20 and which are adjusted through the medium of adjusting bolts50. Extending from chute 41 and forming substantially a continuance ofside-walls 42'thereof are the guards 51' that are mounted upon supports52 secured to the table so as to elevate the lower edge of the guards aslight distance above table 44 in order to permit apron 43 to pass underthe same, but it will be understood the space between the apron and thelower edges of these guards is not sufiicient to permit any of' the nutmeats becoming caught therebetween, or being discharged therethrough.This apron 43 is actuated through the medium of a 'worm pinion 53 uponthe spindle of drum 48 that derives its motion from a worm 54 upon theadjacent end of a shaft 55 extending longitudinally of the frame. Theopposite end of shaft 55 is connected by a sprocket 56.

and chain 57 to a sprocket 58 upon the extended end of shaft 32, asshown inFigures 1 and 9 of the drawings.

Connecting the rear portions of the side walls or guards 51 is atransverse'bar 59 that is provided with vertically elongated slots 60through which bolts 61 pass; said bolts being passed through the block62 which carries a. brush 63 along its lower edge. By moving the'brushvertically so that bolts 61 move longitudinally in the slots 60 theposition of the brush with re- 7 spect to apron 43 may be adjusted andthen secured by means of a wing-nut '64, as shown in detail in Figure12. .Thepurpos'e ofthis brush .is to, act as a'drag above'apron. 43 toregulate the .quantit'yof nut meats passing under the brush, and todistribute; the same transversely and evenly upon the apron.

It may occur that apron 23 feeds the nuts too. rapidly to the sorting orGrisley screen 38, in which event thexnut meats would become pileduponthe mechanism for alining and conveyingthem to the coating speed andquantity of nut meats fed to ,the

alining mechanism so that the latter will not become congested andbreakthe meats. I have shown no portion of the enrobing or coatingapparatus for thereason that this structure forms no portion ofmyinvention, but such apparatus is well known and needs a no descriptionhere.

From apron 4L3 the nut meats are discharged upon a feed apron 65 whichtravelsover a table 66. toyconvey the nut meats to the enrobing orcoating apparatus. The apron 65 is driven by a drum 67, the spindlewhereof carries upon one end a worm pinion 68 in mesh with a worm 69mounted upon the adjacent portion of a longitudinally disposeddrive-shaft 70. This shaft 70 is synchronized with the drivingmechanismof the enrobing or coating apparatus, preferably with the mechanism thatconveys the nut meats or articles through said apparatus. It isnecessary in the feeding of the nut meats to the enrober or coatingapparatus to discharge them onto the receiving structure inlongitudinally disposed rows, each nut meat being spaced slightly fromthe preceding nut meat, and the rows separated a predetermined distance.This I accomplish by means of the structure illustrated in plan in Fig.2, and the details whereof are shown in Figs. 5 to 11 of the drawings.

Mounted above table 66 and apron 65 is a shaker and row formingmechanism. This comprises a plurality of longitudinally disposedparallel bars 71 connected at their ends by cross pieces 72 so as toform a rectangular shaped frame. The bars 71 are suitably mounted bymeans of screws, or the like, upon similarly arranged metal straps 73,which, adjacent their ends, are secured by screws or the like tocross-pieces 72, and at the end nearest the enrobing apparatus extendunder and beyond cross-piece 72,fas seen in Figs. 6 and 8 of thedrawings. These metal straps afford a smooth surface to contact apron 65in its travel over table 66 and prevent,=toa great extent,theunnecessary wear upon the apron. Theend of the struc- I ture, justdescribed, adjacent the enrobing or coating apparatus, is preferablypivotally connected at onev of" its corners notable, 66

through themedium of a' pivot pin'74; This pin 74; is inserted in arecess or openi'ngin the table, and for the purpose of adjusting thestructurewith respect to the enrober apparatus, a plurality .of openings75 arema'de in cross-piece-I72'. In order that the nut meats maypassreadily under bars; 72.

the. latter are formed; with notches or re.-

cesses 76 which arch over the spaces between the longitudinallydisposed-bars- 71 which bars 71. The lower portion of'the tray or chute78 is'provided with a plurality of recesses 79 in order that said chutewill fit down between bars 71 so as to insure the nut 58.0 readilypermits; of thepass age-of the nut meats being fed into the spacesbetween the same.

The cross-piece 72 which is disposed below inclined tray or chute 78 is:extended beyond the table a slight distance, as shown in detail inFigure 5, and has a depending extension 80 secured to its under portion.This extension is provided with an elongated slot v 81 in which operatesan eccentric pin 82 carried upon a disk 83. This disk is mounted upon ashort shaft 84: jou'rnaled in brackets 85-setation of disk 83, and theeccentric pin 82 thereon operating in slot 81 moves cross-piece 72rapidly in aftransverse direction across 7 apron 65; the nut meats beingslowly depositedupon the inclined tray or chute 78 from apron 43 areshaken transversely upon apron 65 between bars 71, and apron 65 movingtoward the enrobing apparatus conveys these nut meats to the latter. inlongitudinal rows and properly spaced for e-ifective delivery to theenrober.

What I claim is i 1 1. In a machine of the kind specified,

means for arranging articles handled in sub stantia-lly parallel-rowscomprising a longitudinally movable apron, a frame superposed thereonconsisting of a plurality of spaced bars arranged substantially parallelto each other, an inclined tray secured to said frame at the receivingend thereof and adapted to discharge the articles upon said apron inspaces between said bar-s, means fonvibrating the receiving end of saidframe, a crosspiece secured to said bars adj acent'the dis charge endsthereof; said cross-piece pro- 'vided with a plurality of verticalapertures adjacent one end, and a pivotal pin entering one of saidapertures to pivot said frame whereby the discharge end of said framemay be adjusted transversely of said apron to regulate the directionofsaid rows of articles discharging from said apron.

2. A feeding mechanism comprising an apron to receive articles to be fedand move them longitudinally to the'end thereof and discharge themtherefrom, a drag co-acting with said apron to regulate the distributionof the articles thereon, a second apron in proximity to the dischargeend of said first apron.

a plurality of spaced longitudinally disposed bars extending over saidsecond apron and vibrated at one end transverse thereto, means foradjusting the opposite ends of said bars transverse to said apron toregulate the direction of discharge of articles from said sec ond apron,and a tray carried by and movof the articles thereon, alsecond apron inproximity .to the discharge end .o-f'said first apron, said apronsmovable in the same direction at different speeds, means for moving saidaprons, a plurality of spaced longitudina-lly disposed bars extendingover said sec- 'ond apron and vibrated atone end transverse thereto,means' for adjusting .theopposite ends of said bars transverse to saidapron to regulate thedirection of discharge c of'articles from saidsecond apron, and a tray carried by and movable with the vibrated end ofsaid bars toreceive the articles from said first apron and deposit themupon said second apron in the spaces between said bars. I Y

Signed at Chicago, county of Cook and State of Illinois, this 16th dayof February,

JAMES oorrrn.v

